1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to system and method for providing technical support to computer users and more specifically to automatic generation of solutions for solving functional problems and correcting errors occurring in user computer systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
The level of quality and convenience of a technical support provided to users is an important factor in sale of technological or software-based products. One type of a technical support is finding solutions in a solution knowledge database without an intervention from technical support personnel or an expert.
In conventional technical support systems, typical solutions are in a form of documents in electronic format (text and/or graphical images) that are often combined in a knowledge database. These documents can be articles, reference files, user instructions, etc. Using these conventional systems, a user needs to spend a lot of time for finding the necessary information to identify and address problems. Typically, a user has to review a number of documents that may not be related to a particular product or to a particular version of the product.
Often, a user cannot guess the causes of system malfunctions, or he may not have sufficient qualifications to detect the malfunctions or damage in the system. Conventional systems analyze a state of a computer system and detect functionality problems or errors. Such systems are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,845,474, U.S. Pat. No. 5,740,354 and in Patent publications JP2006350955A2 and JP2000322267A2. However, these systems are not able to solve the detected problems automatically.
Another type of existing systems, such as, for example, as the system described in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,058,113, can detect an error in a remote computer system and fix it using known rules. However, these rules are represented by bit sequences and error detection requires a period of time during which the system remains under observation. Moreover, some of the functionality problems may not be accompanied by error reports, which considerably narrows the scope of effectiveness of such systems.
Currently, there are no systems that can detect problems, classify the problems, offer the most effective solutions for achieving positive results and automatically apply these solutions for solving the problems. The existing systems also lack the ability to generate rules and solutions that can be added by users.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for a system and method for a faster and effective automated detection of computer functionality-related problems and restoration of correct functionality of user computer systems.